Importing Contacts into Linxi

Supported formats

CSV, TSV, XLSX/XLS (Excel), and VCF (vCard). Upload the file from Contacts → Import, and Linxi parses it and shows you a column-mapping step before anything is actually saved.

Required and optional fields

Each contact needs a phone number or an email address — one of the two is enough. First name, last name, and any custom columns your file has are all optional and get mapped during the import step — you can even create brand-new contact columns on the fly if your file has data Linxi doesn't already have a field for.

Phone number format

You don't need to pre-format numbers into E.164 yourself — Linxi normalizes them automatically during import (a US number like (561) 555-0188 or 561-555-0188 becomes +15615550188). A number that can't be normalized is left blank when the row has an email, and the row is skipped only when it has neither a valid phone nor an email. An email cell with extra text after the address keeps just the address. One bad row never stops the rest of the file — the import summary tells you what was fixed, what was skipped, and why.

Importing from common sources

• Google Contacts — Export as CSV from contacts.google.com
• Excel/spreadsheet — Save/export as CSV or upload the .xlsx directly, both work
• A CRM export — Most CRMs export CSV; check the column-mapping step to make sure phone/name fields line up correctly, since CRM exports often use non-obvious column headers
• Another SMS platform's export — Usually CSV; same mapping step applies

Lists and tags during import

You can assign every imported contact to a new or existing list, and/or apply tags, as part of the same import — useful for keeping a CSV export from one source clearly separated from your other contacts.

Duplicates and opted-out contacts

A phone number that already exists as an active contact in the workspace is skipped as a duplicate, not created a second time; a contact with no phone is matched by email instead. If a phone number matches a contact that was previously soft-deleted, importing it again brings that contact back rather than creating a duplicate. Existing STOP/opted-out contacts stay opted-out through a re-import — importing a file never resets someone's opt-out status.